Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Jacque Jones Got a HoF Vote, Seriously

I was reading a Fangraphs article, by Tony Blengino, about the recent changes to the Baseball Hall of Fame voting rules. His article focused on the large amount of players currently sitting in the HoF eligibility pool and whether the new rules will impact that pool's size. His article also provided a list of the players receiving votes in 2014. A different version of the 2014 HoF voting can be seen on Baseball-Reference.com. On this list there were 19 players in their first year of eligibility. 14 of these players did not receive enough votes to return to the ballot next year. Six players did not receive any votes. However the big shocker here was one of the players that did receive a vote, Jacque Jones.

Don't feel bad if you are asking yourself who exactly Jacque Jones is. Unless you are a fan of the Twins or Cubs, or you played a lot of 2000 MLB Showdown, you probably never had reason to know who he was. You might even think I am misspelling his first name repeatedly, but I am not. Let me enlighten you about Jones' baseball career. He was an outfielder with a career triple slash of .277/.326/.448 who spent the majority of his career in Minnesota. His best single year in the Bigs was 2002, when he batted .300 hit 27 homers, good for a 121 wRC+. He only spent 10 years in the majors and only had two, maybe three, years worthy of All-Star consideration. Those stats don't cry Hall of Famer to me. In fact they barely scream anything.

Whoever it was that voted for Jacque Jones must have had an ulterior motive. Maybe Jones' uncle is part of the BBWA and has a HoF vote. Maybe one of the Twins writers just really loved interacting with Jones during his tenure with the team. Who knows? The point is Jacque Jones actually got a HoF vote.



Tuesday, July 15, 2014

In Larry Stone's Sunday tribute to King Felix he dropped this little fact, "Only former teammate Aaron Harang among active pitchers, with 337, has made more career starts than Hernandez’s 288 without appearing in the postseason" This fact struck me for a couple of reasons. First, it confirms what many Mariners fans have been whining about for years. The Mariners ineptitude has been wasting the greatness that is Felix Hernandez. More surprisingly though was that Aaron Harang has managed to miss the playoffs all 14 years of this career.

Harang isn't a bad player. In fact he has been a good player during most of his career. During his eight year run with the Reds he routinely posted strikeout numbers that grouped him with the league leaders. He kept his ERA respectably middling, at 4.24 for his career. These aren't Felix Hernandez stats, but they are solid. Additionally, Harang has played for the A's, Padres, Mets, Dodgers, and Mariners in his career. With that many teams you would think somebody would sneak in. Yet some how he has managed to miss the playoffs every year.

I wonder if Reds' fans mope about wasting the prime of his career. Do they wish they could have made the playoffs at least once for him? Do they even remember he was on their team? Probably not. He did stick around for a long time, but his stats weren't good enough to develop a following in most cities. Also most Cincinnati fans probably didn't even know he had such a record. Cincinnati is a town with a strong baseball tradition, but that doesn't mean they know minutia like this.

If Reds' fans don't bemoan the injustice of Harang's playoff drought, probably only his mom does. Up until now at least. Going forward, I hope that Aaron Harang makes the post season with the Braves this year. He has a good chance. The Braves are a good team and sitting in second place in the NL East. Plus if he breaks the curse that means there is hope for Felix.

Monday, July 7, 2014

The US Men's National Teams 2014 World Cup Performance

Team USA had a fun, but disappointing run at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Some people are casting the tournament as a success because the Men's team made it out of the group of death (Germany, Portugal, and Ghana). The argument is that the USA went up against some of the big boys of the soccer world and lived to tell about it. I don’t view it this way.

The team showed stout defense and a never say die attitude against some of the toughest opponents in the world. The played exciting matches and got US fans hearts pumping. They definitely raised the country's collective soccer passion a few notches. The Portugal game alone probably caused enough American hairs to be pulled out to keep Bosely Hair Transplant in business for another 50 years. However, the excitement level caused by a single game or tournament is not what Americans should be judging  soccer success on.  We have grown past that. We should be competing for championships, not settling for the participation trophy.  Tying for ninth (if you don’t consider Goals For and Goals Against) isn't good enough for a rich and sports crazy country with 316 million people. Tying for ninth is a disappointment.

Our team should have performed better at the World Cup. Against Ghana we were sloppy and beaten in every aspect of the game but the scoreboard (I know, the only one that really counts). Against Portugal we played at a world class level only to make too many stupid amateur mistakes at the very end of the game and finish with a draw. Against Belgium we failed to put together any semblance of an offensive attacked and if not for Tim Howard's other worldly performance in goal would have gotten massacred. Our team needs to be better.

I know others are claiming the strikers were the biggest problems, but I think the biggest area for improvement is the offensive midfield. Before the tournament began, Michael Bradley was argued to be the best player on the men's squad by several soccer minds. During the tournament he struggled to control the ball, he struggled to distribute to the right man at the right time, and he played like crap. Bradley may be the excellent world class player the sport's experts claimed, but he certainly didn't look it during the tournament. I don't want to pile on anyone players to much, especially in a sport that is as much of a team game as soccer, but Bradley's lack of success was the biggest reason for our team's struggles and eventual ousting.

Despite the failure in 2014, there is obvious reason to be optimistic for the USA's future (and this is why so many people see Brazil as a success). Although this lack of individual success during the 2014 World Cup was bad, Bradley is only 26. He should have at least one more World Cup in him. A player of his purported greatness shouldn't fail twice. Additionally, the USMNT has  several very young and very good players, such as Julian Green and DeAndre Yedlin, that we got to see just glimpses of during this tournament. Both should be even better in 2018. Finally, the popularity of soccer in this country is continuing to grow. The MLS is finding success at attracting and importantly developing better and better players. So, despite the disappointment of 2014, don't give up on the USMNT, just get ready for the next run, which looks to be even better.